Bay Street Children’s Foundation Charity Poker Wrap-up
Last night’s BSCF Charity Poker event was a night to remember! As a community, we were able to raise ~$45,000 to support Holland Bloorview, Kids Helpline and Cornerstone Family, with charitable donations that will truly make a difference in the lives of children and their families who aren’t as lucky as all of us. While it’s good fun to enjoy a night out of the house, crush a few cocktails with our Bay St compatriots, and channel our inner urge to gamble for Las Vegas glory, the real winners from these events are always the kids. That’s something we can and should be proud of. On behalf of the board and all our volunteers at BSCF, we thank you for your attendance, your enthusiasm, and all of your generous contributions.
Before we get into the accolades and praise for the poker aficionados of the evening, we would be remiss if we didn’t thank Wayne and his amazing staff at the Bottom Line for hosting us, Jeff and his team of dealers and support staff at Nightlife Entertainment for facilitating the poker tournament action, and all of the table sponsors and volunteers (Roberta, Meena and Sarah you were amazing with all the raffles and rebuys!) that helped fill the seats and make things run so smoothly all night long.
Our raffle was another huge charity success. Congrats to all the winners! David Archer held the lucky ticket for our 50/50 prize. Special shoutout to Sean Debotte for his bonus chip raffle win; but more importantly the kids send their thanks even more for Sean’s entire table for absolutely backing the truck up on their raffle ticket purchases! Afterall, it’s all for the kids, right!!
One such table mate was Evie Dargel who somehow landed herself some bonus chips AND was the lucky winner in the draw for the final table seat (more on that later). She put those chips to use and made good decisions while battling valiantly almost all the way to final table glory the old fashioned way. BUT, her best decision of the evening was her choice of nomination to take her place in that final table lottery seat
It’s hard, it’s lucky, and there are many poker players capable of doing it once. But last night, BSCF crowned our first ever back to back charity poker tournament champion! Congratulations to Matt Condlln for figuring out the miraculous formula of well timed aggression and good fortune as he blasted his way through the final table in about 45 minutes flat. It was a tough battle for all our final table participants but it ultimately came down to two trophy worthy players competing heads up. Matt ultimately took the glory and gets his name on the trophy for the second time, but in a true sign of collaboration among Bay Street’s finest, he made a deal with his heads up adversary and our runner up George Polyzois, who will proudly be representing all of us in Las Vegas this summer on route to what is hopefully BSCF’s first World Series of Poker Bracelet victory. Congrats to both Matt and George for their great sportsmanship and solid poker play!
Shout out to all our final players listed below. And for those of you not on this list, we will see you next time!
- Matt Condlln
- George Polyzois
- Sean McNulty
- Vishen Maharaj
- Hector Sem
- Pat Winogron
- Rick Mavrinac
- Sean Debotte
- Ted Browne
With poker now behind us, we’d like to flag for your attention our upcoming Pro Celebrity Charity Softball Tournament which will be taking place on Saturday June 17. If you have interest in entering a team, participating as a sponsor, or getting involved in this great day on the diamonds, please let us know as space is limited and the event is always a sellout blast! Check out our website for further details or reach out to any of us on the BSCF team.
And remember, ITS ALL FOR THE KIDS!!!